When I Love You, Man came out five years ago, it felt like the culmination of nearly a decade of “bromance” movies. A comedy set up as the story of a dude searching for another dude to just do dude stuff with. The movie has all the trappings of your typical romantic comedy: guy meets girl (in this case, Jason Segel), they quickly fall for each other, guy screws things up, guy must fix things. But it has the fart jokes and Rush jam sessions that Nora Ephron movies typically lack.

Speaking of Rush jam sessions, here’s a little info on the man cave where they took place:

1. Sydney’s drum set is a replica of Keith Moon’s. The drum set that Sydney has in his man cave is a look-a-like of Keith Moon’s infamous Vistalite ‘Goldfish’ set that he used on a taping of the old rock program, The Midnight Special in 1975.

Dreamworks

2. Matt Walsh’s impatient golfer character comes from an old Upright Citizen’s Brigade sketch. The Matt Walsh cameo in the movie of the impatient golfer is from a a UCB sketch called “Ass Pennies” that was included in the short-lived show’s first season on Comedy Central in 1998.

3. Rush stuck around to play a concert for the crew. The Canadian rock trio was nice enough not only to appear in the movie, but stick around to play an hour-long set for the crew and die-hard fans who found out about the free show online.

4. Jason Segel was slapped in the face by a professional wrestler while filming. One of the standout scenes in the film is when Lou Ferrigno puts Sydney in a sleeper hold. During a press interview, Jason Segel revealed that on set was a former professional wrestler who had made the sleeper hold famous — Dusty Rhodes, perhaps — that would be coaching Lou Ferrigno on how to properly execute the move. Without warning, the wrestler walked over to Jason Segel and told him “you’ve gotta be tough today” then slapped him across the face.

5. The movie’s script sat on the shelf for 11 years! The first incarnation of I Love You, Man was written in the mid-1990s under the title Let’s Be Friends. The early version of the script made its way to director John Hamburg several times, but the writer/director was too busy with other projects to do the movie. It wasn’t until the director got some free time in 2007 that he was able to sign on to direct and rewrite the film with as he describes, more sex jokes:

“I really wrote my own version of the script, so my version was always going to be R-rated. I wanted to discuss sex, I wanted to discuss – there were blowjobs in the movie, there was Sydney Fife’s character who’s no way he could live in a PG-13 universe. It wasn’t like trying to be raunchy or gratuitous, it was just like, I think most people live in an R-rated world.”

6. The Egyptian President’s daughters filed a lawsuit against the filmmakers. The family of late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat presumably are not Jason Segel fans, as they took serious offense to Sydney’s dog having the same name as the former Egyptian president. Sadat’s daughters filed a lawsuit and their lawyer, Samir Sabri asked for an official apology from the U.S. Embassy. Any copies of the movie sold in Egypt have since had the scene removed.

“Any copies of the movie sold in Egypt have since had the scene removed.”

a) I’m sure the producers are irritated that they didn’t get that $3.47 in royalties they would have earned.

b) should I play internet nitpicker? Ah, why not. Does “Any copies of the movie sold in Egypt have since had the scene removed” mean that they tracked down all of the copies sold and removed the scene? Or did you mean “Any copies of the movie sold in Egypt since, have had the scene removed.”
I hate myself for doing that. Sorry, I do it ALL THE TIME when listening to radio adverts and stuff, it’s…an illness.

Actually, my point (a) makes no sense, since they would’ve earned royalties even on edited versions. UNLESS there are cinematic purists in Egypt who refuse to purchase censored copies.
I could go on like this for ever, it’s a slow day at work.